skills are an illusion

Justice would mean the technical and physical skills you worked so hard in training and matches to develop would remain yours forever. This life is not fair though. Skills are somewhat of an illusion. Of everything you own, skills are the most perishable. By 40, the vast majority of players have lost not only some of the skills which made them great, but actually most. There are exceptions to this rule - but make no mistake that these players had to work daily to retain their skillset. In fact, far more players fall off the cliff early than those who stand tall atop it beyond their years. How many exceptional players at 21 do we know that looked a shadow of themselves by 28 - when they should have been at the very peak of their career.

The typical team training process at the top level is generally enough to keep players ticking over, but not necessarily to offer the progression required to prolong performance at the elite level. Furthermore, periods sidelined due to injury are then often major setbacks for those players who fail to commit to extra training and recovery protocols. The regression which occurs in such a time is not recovered.

A good metaphor for understanding the perishability of skills is through a bank account. Imagine that your bank balance dropped if you failed to check it regularly enough (reversibility). Now spread your finances across several bank accounts (the various skills required for Football), all of which must be checked (trained) often enough to prevent the decline. Furthermore, failure to continually add more money into these bank accounts (progression) would result in their freezing or further decline.

To add to this, beyond a certain age, the time between checking your balances to stave off their decline becomes increasingly shortened. For the 40 year old, failure to add to the bank account and check it regularly enough results in losses which may never be recovered. How about tech failures (injuries) preventing you from accessing your account for periods of time? Those become absolutely pivotal with the aforementioned in mind.